Joint Seminar l Analyzing Professional Discourse from a Multimodal Perspective

As discourse and communication in various professional contexts have become increasingly multimodal, it is important for analysts to look at semiotic resources beyond language. A multimodal approach is therefore needed for understanding how meaning is realised through the deployment of different semiotic resources. In this talk, I will introduce how theories in multimodality can contribute to the analysis of professional discourse, addressing the question “what happens when professional communication moves online?” in particular. Working broadly with the notion of multimodal genre analysis, I will examine two key features of professional discourse on new media, namely, the complexity of communicative purposes and the extensive use of multimodal resources. Using two cases studies of YouTube teaching videos and corporate social media posts, I will discuss the functions of multimodal resources in knowledge construction and corporate promotion, which contribute to the formation of new digital genres. I conclude that professionals and scholars need to understand the new semiotic possibilities brought about by technologies and how multimodal resources are orchestrated for achieving various purposes in digitalised professional communication.